Correspondence #2: A very merry Amram
Some festive wishes from a Beat musical legend who sees many positives in Kerouac and the cultural life of the Village and reminds us how the British Invasion was such a boost to US artists
Earlier this month, David Amram wrote an extended message to his friends – Jim Sampas, Literary Executor of the Jack Kerouac Estate, Steve Edington, a key organiser of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac (LCK), Liz Thomson, who oversees the annual New York celebration The Village Trip (TVT), and also here at Rock and the Beat Generation.
His positive thoughts, on words and music, Greenwich Village and the Anglo-American crossover plus the enduring spell of his pal and collaborator Kerouac, are worth sharing, I think. And, with David’s permission, we do so here. Happy Christmas to all our readers…
Email, December 22nd, 2021
Dear All,
Simon [Warner] and Jim Sampas have written a wonderful book [Kerouac on Record] together and I was lucky enough to contribute the experiences I shared with Kerouac in our collaborations where we both incorporated classic jazz of the 40s and 50s in our work together.
And both Simon and Jim have me the chance to do it DIPLOMATICALLY, rather than having my small part of a wonderful book celebrating rock and poetry being trashed by a jazz/classical/academic SNOB!
They allowed me to introduce to the readers of their book the spiritual and sociological treasures which were and remain part of jazz's ever-changing history.
And how this music STILL HAS a direct relationship to today's latest music and the effect that jazz has had in keeping an open mind and open heart to everyone who wants to collaborate with words and music spontaneously, while still always being RESPECTFUL to the sanctity of the WORD and the importance of communicating with the audience.
The roots of this ever-changing music, so influenced by the Black Church as well as the sophistication of ALL the various forms of music which remain in HARMONY with one another, all create a nutritious GUMBO (NOT a Melting Pot).
This free-floating always-changing approach to music continues to enrich ALL music.
And the reverse is true as well.
Jim Sampas, who had his own rock band before he began working for the Kerouac Estate as their musical coordinator, and Simon Warner really understand and cherishes Jack's work as PART of an Era, and the relationship of the spoken word. And how this is something that has been going on since Homer rapped out his Iliad and Odyssey several thousand years ago. As a true scholar, he shows us that the English language and music can become something MORE than one would ever imagine when they are combined.
From recitations of Beowulf to Walt Whitman to Emily Bronte to the composers like Gershwin and Duke Ellington, singer-songwriters like Dylan + Joni Mitchell + Janis Ian + The Beatles + Leonard Cohen, and Woody Guthrie, like lyricists Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, and SO MANY OTHERS from around the world, the combination of words and music ENHANCE ONE ANOTHER.
Together they continue to make endless possibilities for all of us to listen to as well as to create.
Having us all contribute to The Village Trip is so important to see happening because these ideas have always been celebrated and loved in the the Village, which is a great GUMBO in itself!!
So seeing this happening is what I think Kerouac and I and many others (like Doug Yeager) DREAMED of years before Doug and I met you, Liz [Thompson], at the Cornelia Street Cafe and you told of this crazy dream you had of starting a festival to honour the past and present of this magical oasis in the middle of the Concrete Jungle.
YOU MADE AND ARE CONTINUING TO MAKE THIS DREAM BECOME A REALITY!
Rather than having ambitious groups declaring TURF (and who’s in and who’s out) The Village Trip is EVOLVING and NOT being franchised and it makes a big difference!!
There is so much to discuss: first though, The Village Trip could show us all about Lenny Bruce's incredible understanding of the USA/UK's relationship, because he really understood how all of us on both sides of the Pond still share the struggle for self-esteem. And, through laughter, made us aware of this dilemma.
As you know, many of us who work in classical music (and all of us who do adore the music) still feel colonised by those with an inner desire to become part of the Edwardian Era of long ago, and tell us that we must not ever seen to be common!
BUT we have to teach ourselves to be able to see the Beauty which exists in everyday life and people IF YOU PAY ATTENTION!!
And that while the music may be royal, snobbism is trashy!
Lenny Bruce had an uncanny sense of the craziness of the acute Anglophobia that existed in people who felt that they could remedy their low self-esteem by pretending to be anything that was removed from their own heritage.
Lenny showed us that people who acquire fake English accents, as a means of pretending to be aristocratic, are just as offensive and disrespectful as Caucasians who pretend to be African Americans and have no respect for a culture that they know nothing about.
His brilliant satire of the desperate American entertainer who was bombing out in a London Music Hall is a classic, a statement of how bad performing does not create a memorable experience.
His routine ‘Religions Incorporated’ is a brilliant comment about the franchising of all the world's major religions, all of which takes place in a sleazy booking agency.
Comedian-philosopher Lord Buckley's phenomenal bebop style doing his own re-makes of Shakespeare and Bible stories, all in his unique style, combining the incantations of an African American preacher, a jazz musician of the 40s and Winston Churchill's thunderous declamations (which were so effective during World War II): his innovations remain a marvel to hear over and over.
And satirists like Texan-born author Terry Southern became our version of Jonathan Swift.
All of these people loved music and often participated with musicians and, as a result, we all became each others’ fans
Perhaps if TVT does a program about comedy in the Village, some of this could be addressed!
And for the wonderful harmony that exists between our cultures, there is the touching story in Black Elk Speaks, interviewed by author John G. Neihardt, where the great Native American Lakota Elder tells us of how, when he was honoured in London as a visiting leader of the Lakota people, the Queen left her carriage to curtsy to Black Elk, because she sensed HIS royalty and his true aristocracy, just as he did hers.
And all of us who played jazz knew how in the 1920s, when Louis Armstrong was informed during a special concert he was giving that the King and Queen were in the hall, he raised his trumpet towards the special box seat where they sat and said in his gravelly voice, ‘This song's for you, Rex.’
I think that all these experiences show that we don't have to think that what any of us have to contribute should considered as TURF but simply as a welcome mat which helps everyone who comes to the USA to know that they should come next September, to visit us in Greenwich Village and come to see us at The Village Trip, because it is a large tent where everyone is welcome! That's the magic that the Village has always had: it has always made just about everyone feel accepted and at home…
The parks, streets, coffee house and loft parties are all like open mikes, as they were a century before there WERE any mikes!
This year’s TVT festival also relates to Jack's upcoming Centennial Year in 2022, because this gives us all a chance to see how the British Invasion in the 60s helped all of us in the USA to appreciate our own artists, many of whom remained neglected or totally unknown until that musical exchange which was called the British Invasion. .
When the Beatles, the Stones, Eric Burdon, Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison (who supported the legacy of Jack, Neal Cassady and Slim Gaillard) all made these artists more popular here because, in their countless interviews with the American press, they spoke about Little Richard, Chuck Berry, BB King, Carl Perkins and Screaming Jay Hawkins with such reverence, the US newspapers discovered the treasure chest of music that originated here.
These English and Irish blues and rock players helped a whole new generation here in the USA to see the Beauty that exists here by their constant praise and support of the work of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Mahalia Jackson, Odetta and an ARMY of singer-songwriters, instrumentalists, poets, authors, jazz and folk artists, and this something for which we should be grateful.
And now Liz, you and Simon are re-introducing us all to the endless delights of Greenwich Village, the jewel which we took for granted until you gave us a wakeup call.
So thank you Liz and Simon for what you are doing for the Village, our beloved community which we had taken for granted.
And we can remember to support the new Culture Center dedicated to Jack in Lowell which Jim Sampas is working on.
And, in 2023, after the JK Centennial is over, we must remember to let people know about the annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival, which began in the late 1980s. Like The Village Trip, LCK remains a true community event.
No matter how global it becomes, like the great song ‘Old Man River’:
‘Old man river……LCK just keeps ROLLIN' ALONG’
We all will, too!
Happy Holidays,
David
Note: More details on The Village Trip, which next takes place in Greenwich Village in September 2022, can be found here: https://www.thevillagetrip.com/
The Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival occurs every year in October. The website is here: https://lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/
Pat Thomas interviews David Amram in Kerouac on Record: A Literary Soundtrack (Bloomsbury, 2018)